Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a contact spring with a connection part for an electrical conductor and a contact part with a spring leg base and spring legs originating there for contacting a plug contact, and a detent sleeve retained at the spring leg base, produced from sheet metal as a stamped and bent part, surrounding the contact part in boxlike fashion and being constructed as an overspring, the detent sleeve having a bottom wall, two side walls each having one overspring arm cut out of the side wall, bent inward and resting on a respective spring leg, a top wall divided by a production-dictated longitudinal slit, and a detent spring arm being cut out of a wall, extending longitudinally of the detent sleeve and being bent outward.
Such contact springs are well known, for instance from German Patent DE 35 46 762 C2. In such contact springs, the detent sleeve essentially serves the function of a reinforcement spring or overspring that is intended to increase the spring force. To that end, the overspring known from German Patent DE 35 46 762 C2 is provided on both side walls with cutouts, each in the longitudinal edge region of the box shape, and with dividing cuts on a front rib of the box, so that overspring arms are formed which extend forward in tongue-like fashion toward the plug-side end. They are bent inward toward one another and rest on the contact spring. A detent spring arm is also cut away from the bottom wall of the overspring and bent outward. It serves to lock the contact spring in the contact chamber of a housing. However, the stability of the overspring and therefore its protective function can be impaired if there is a relatively large number of cutouts provided in the walls of an overspring.